Isly stood before her reflection in the depths of the Lost Forest, her transformed body surrounded by an unnatural silence. Chaos Nirvana had completely changed her appearance. Her black hair had grown long and tall, flowing behind her as though suspended in a current that did not exist, while black flames burned around her body without consuming anything they touched.
Her staff rested lightly in her hand. Across from her stood the reflection. It looked exactly like her. The same black hair. The same staff. The same black flames. Even the same expression of confidence.
Isly spun her staff once before resting it against her shoulder, sweat running slowly down the side of her face. Despite everything that had happened, she still couldn't help finding the situation ridiculous.
"I know I'm fighting myself," Isly muttered, staring at the reflection, "but this is getting annoying."
The reflection smiled then it disappeared..Isly's eyes narrowed.
The next instant, her reflection appeared directly in front of her, its staff surrounded by black flames as Amaterasu erupted from its body. The attack came with enough force to swallow the space between them. Isly immediately raised her own hand. Black fire exploded outward.
"Amaterasu."
Her flames collided with the reflection's. The entire battlefield vanished beneath darkness and fire.
Trees were consumed as the two manifestations of Chaos Nirvana released the same destructive flames. The ground trembled beneath them while waves of black fire spread through the surrounding forest.
Isly pushed backward, her feet sliding across the earth before she steadied herself. She stared through the flames. Her reflection was already standing again. Neither had gained an advantage. Isly clicked her tongue.
"I need a new way to apply Chaos."
She watched as the reflection raised its staff. Changing the environment isn't going to work. The reflection swung its staff.
A massive wave of Chaos Magic surged toward Isly. She moved instantly, stepping sideways as the wave passed beside her and tore through the forest behind her. Isly landed several meters away and looked toward the destruction. Her eyes slowly narrowed.
"If applying Chaos to the environment won't work…"
Her gaze returned to her reflection.
"Then how about applying it to everything about the individual?"
The thought remained in her mind for only a moment. Then something clicked. There was no explanation. No technique or instruction. The idea simply became something she understood. Isly's eyes widened slightly.
"So that's it."
Her grip tightened around her staff. The reflection dashed toward her.
Isly moved at the same time both of them crossed the battlefield. The reflection raised its staff and swung toward Isly's head. Isly ducked beneath the attack. For a fraction of a second, she had no idea what technique to use.
She had never practiced it. She had never named it. She didn't even know whether it would work but the moment the thought entered her mind, her Chaos responded as though it had been waiting for her to understand. Isly's eyes sharpened.
"Chaos Eruption."
The world around her reflection changed. The air itself began to distort.
Space seemed to lose its consistency around the reflection as its body started deforming and reforming simultaneously. Its shape shifted in ways that shouldn't have been possible, constantly changing between countless possibilities.
The reflection tried to move but every movement brought it back to the exact same place. It stepped forward. It returned to where it had started. It swung its staff. Its body distorted and reformed. It attempted to move backward.
Again, it returned to the same position. Isly stood completely still as she watched. She finally understood. She hadn't changed the battlefield. She had changed the rules surrounding the individual itself. The reflection's existence could no longer settle into a single state.
Its body, movement, position, and very structure were being subjected to Chaos. Then something fell. Clink. The red crystal embedded within the reflection's chest dropped onto the ground. The black liquid surrounding it immediately began losing its form.
Isly walked over and picked up the crystal. She looked at it for a moment before closing her hand…Crack. The crystal shattered. The remaining black liquid vanished with it. Silence returned to the battlefield. Isly released a tired breath and looked toward the sky through the damaged canopy of the Lost Forest.
"What an unpredictable way of learning Authority…" she said quietly.
A small smile appeared on her face.
"I guess it suits my style."
Far away, another battle was reaching its conclusion.
Kaelus stood in the middle of a devastated section of the Lost Forest, sweat running down his face as he stared at his reflection. Despite his exhaustion, he was smiling.
"Damn," Kaelus said, rolling his shoulder. "I guess I'm too strong."
His reflection simply stared back at him. Kaelus lowered his body into a stance. The surrounding air began moving. He inhaled deeply.
"Tempest Slice."
His sword flashed. One slash became many. Countless blades of compressed wind tore across the battlefield toward the reflection. The reflection responded immediately. It performed the exact same movement.
"Tempest Slice."
The two attacks collided. The battlefield erupted. Wind exploded outward in every direction as the countless blades crashed together, sending a tremendous shockwave through the forest.
For a moment, Kaelus disappeared within the explosion. Then the reflection's eyes shifted. Kaelus appeared behind it. His body had become almost impossible to track. Every movement seemed to place him somewhere different.
Every step existed between presence and absence. His technique, Everywhere Yet Nowhere, allowed him to move through the battlefield without being confined to a single predictable path.
Kaelus twisted his body. His leg slammed into the reflection's face. The reflection was launched across the battlefield, crashing through several trees before finally stopping. Kaelus landed and exhaled.
"I gotta get rid of this thing now. It's been too long. I'm not even sure how many hours have passed but… how?"
The reflection suddenly appeared directly in front of him. Its sword came down. Kaelus raised his own blade. Tempest burst between them. The attack was blocked. Then another came and another. The reflection attacked relentlessly and Kaelus blocked each strike.
His sword moved from one angle to another, intercepting every attack before it could reach him. The battle became a rhythm. The reflection never stopped. Kaelus's arms grew heavier. Yet his movements remained precise. He wasn't thinking about each attack anymore. His body simply moved.
A strike came from the left. He blocked it. Another came from above and shifted his blade.m and another from the right and he turned his wrist. The reflection continued pressing forward but Kaelus remained standing. Then a memory surfaced. He remembered the words of Azure Tempest...The original God of the Wind.
The ancient deity who had once taught him something so simple that Kaelus had almost overlooked its meaning.
"The wind is always free."
Another strike came and Kaelus blocked it.
"It cannot be shackled by anything. It can be anywhere."
Kaelus's breathing slowed.
"It can be concealed and it can reach even the furthest places."
The reflection continued attacking but Kaelus stopped watching it. He closed his eyes. The world disappeared. There was only his breathing. In & Out. He could hear the wind moving through the trees. He could feel the air passing against his skin.
He could feel every movement around him not because he was seeing it. It's because he was feeling it. The wind didn't need a fixed location, It didn't need a visible form, It didn't need to announce where it was, It simply existed.
Kaelus opened his eyes.
The reflection's sword was already descending. Instead of blocking it, Kaelus stepped forward. His body passed directly through the reflection. Silence took over the battlefield. The reflection froze as Kaelus stood several meters behind it, his hand was raised.
A red crystal orb rested above his palm. The reflection slowly turned. Kaelus looked at the crystal…Tiny spirals of wind appeared around it. Then more followed, the spirals became smaller and smaller until they were almost impossible to see.
The crystal began breaking apart. Not from force or from a single strike but from countless microscopic movements of wind acting upon it from every direction and the red crystal disappeared into nothingness. Kaelus lowered his hand.
"Wind Fractal."
The reflection vanished. Kaelus stood silently for several seconds before finally exhaling.
His expression softened. He understood that the wind didn't need to be powerful because it could destroy through countless points at once. It didn't need to strike from one place..It could exist everywhere.
Meanwhile, in another region of the Lost Forest, the battlefield had become completely frozen. Trees, branches, and even sections of the ground were covered in layers of ice. The air itself had become cold enough that every breath left a faint mist. Stellar stood at the center of it all.
Across from her stood her reflection. Both figures were surrounded by frost, neither moved. The reflection's eyes remained fixed on Stellar as the frozen forest stretched endlessly around them. Stellar tightened her grip because the battle was not over yet.